November 2000 News

New Book Examines the History and Ethics of Animal Experimentation

November 17, 2000

The Scalpel and the Butterfly: The War Between Animal Research and Animal Protection, by Deborah Rudacille, presents a fascinating account of the history and ethics of animal experimentation. Rudacille is a former writer and editor for the Johns Hopkins Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing (CAAT).

In precise and elegant prose, The Scalpel and the Butterfly explores the ongoing struggle between the promise offered by new research and the anxiety about safety and ethical implications in the context of the conflict between experimental medicine and animal protection that dates back to the mid-nineteenth century. Rudacille offers a compelling and cogent look at the history of this divisive topic, from the days of Louis Pasteur and the founding of organized antivivisection in England to the Nazi embrace of eugenics, from animal rights to the continuing war between PETA and biomedical researchers, and the latest developments in replacing, reducing, and refining animal use for research and testing.

The Scalpel and the Butterfly is "An absorbing analysis of issues that will dominate 21st-century biomedical science as technology steams full-speed ahead, leaving major moral issues in its wake" (Kirkus Reviews).

For more details, or to place an order, go to Amazon.com: here